The Fall of the House of Usher
What is Roderick's malady?
what is Roderick Usher's malady?
what is Roderick Usher's malady?
Poe never really tells us what Roderick's malady is. Like the house of Usher, Roderick seems to be disintegrating, “A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison ; lips somewhat thin and very pallid....." Roderick's emotional state is fragile too, "and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy - an excessive nervous agitation..." Roderick is very much a part of everything about Usher that is crumbling including his "dead" sister.